Soathern Nursery Company, Winchester, Tenn. 
PECANS AS FOOD. 
We believe the c-oiiiing of the pefuii into the food markets 
of the world marks tin oi)och iu tlio liistory of the race. A 
higher aver.ifro of civilization is always accompanied by im- 
proveil conditions of uonrislimeut, and a glauce at the chem- 
istry of the foods of tlie nations most advanced shows us 
very quiclcly where changes for the better are liljely. 
Let us avoid te<'hnieal terms and mention only familiar 
facts. Some may not have seen the simi)le experiment of 
taliiug a (luarter of a largo i)ecan kernel and lighting the end 
of it as if it were a caudle. It burns with slow, clear liame 
as pure and free as a wax taper. When a small portion is 
well charreil, l>low out the Hanie and let the nostrils feast on 
the odor of tlje slender thread of smoke arising. Every meat 
eater instantly exclaims, "burnt steak." And they are not 
mistaken in this. What we smell when a piece of fresh beef 
Is scorched is the odor of the oil it contains, the oil which the 
animal has absorbed from its vegetable food, digested and 
built into the fibre of tiesh and l)one. And it is this very oil 
that gives to meat its strength as a food. 
The bee goes to the (lowers of the field and brings honey 
we c<juld scart'ely obtain iu any other way. The animal we 
have been taught to slaughter for food brings us the strength 
of the plant lile it has fed upon. But in the latter case, every 
grain of the sulislance we eat is tinctured with the indiviau- 
ality of the animal. Every animal killed for food has Its 
own peculiarities. While tlie base of the food value is the 
same in all, each one is {)crnieated with the anlmality of its 
kind. How much better it would be if we might get our 
food values from the vegetable direct, thus cutting out the 
Infusion of any animal quality. Clearer thinking and cleaner 
living would be easy. 
Straws sho\v which way the currents flow. Here is just 
one. Close observers know thai excessive users of alcoholic 
drinks prefer a meat diet. Indeed the strict vegetarian can 
not use alcoholic beverages to excess. Meat seems necessary 
to the drinker, and only meat eaters form the drink habit 
as a rule. So when current history shows that the use of 
alcohol as a food or drink item is not keeping pace with the 
growth of pojiulation, we may be sure the mighty guiding 
power back of human evolution is developing a food product 
